In Passing
by incandescience
Summary: Kunzite and Venus meet in the 21st century. AU, pre-Crystal Tokyo era.
1. the meeting

Still the same disclaimer as usual. :o

This started off as the drabble for Four Seasons, but eventually morphed into how Kunzite meets Minako. It's still in that same world, though - so, enjoy!

P.S. Kris (Kristof Styrka) = Kunzite.

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_the meeting  
_

Summer is a time where he likes to make an escape from his home city, as schools let out and the city is flooded with gabbling teenagers, tourists and heat, and so Kris jumps at the chance to head the auditing team that the company's sending down to California for a few months – like he always does. Jaden knows his habits, and when Kris calls, Jay says casually, that he's been keeping two apartments free of tenants, one in San Francisco and one in Santa Monica, and Kris breathes a sigh of relief. It's one hassle out of the way (although it's never a real hassle, since every year, the same thing happens - same habit, same phone call.) Somewhere in the conversation, Kris mentions he's been having odd dreams (he doesn't say its about a strange version of him that seems to talk to an "Endymion" and a girl he keeps calling "Lady Venus", and that the dreams seem to take place either on the moon or in what looks like Earth millenia ago.) Jay also mentions that he hasn't been sleeping well recently, and Kris frowns – its so unlike his genial, fun-loving friend to be stressed to the point of insomnia that for a while, after the call ends, he wonders, and resolves to find some reason to fix whatever problem Jay's going through.

It can't be love – Jay still runs through a stream of girls monthly – the business is fine, surprisingly enough, and the kid was born into money – and the tabloids haven't had any dirt on his family this year, as they already found out he was born out of wedlock a few years ago, and he'd finally met his half-sister, who was supposedly some famous model, - Melinda? Miranda? and unlike normally, in the phone call, Jay hadn't complained about his half-sister's ridiculous antics either – Kris shrugs, and makes a mental note to himself to ask Jay about it later.

That worry makes him forget to double-check the list of companies that the team's been assigned. He doesn't realize of course, that it's not the same list as the last year, (even though before that, it hasn't changed in the past four years) - a LA branch of a New York based modeling agency has been added. And he doesn't realize either that Jay might just be going through the same process that he's going through – but Kris doesn't remember Jay in his past life - the only memories he has from his past life are of the dark-haired man, and the sunshine girl.

And so for the next month, while he's run down with business affairs, the worry lingers in the back of Kris' mind, but he never really has time to think on it for more than a few minutes or two, and by the time he's in California, Kris has completely forgotten. He calls Jay, who picks him up at the airport, bleary-eyed for some reason (Kris figures Jay is just hungover), and who says something odd over lunch, about thinking of seeing some psychic medium or another.

Jay gives him a set of keys to a loaner car and the apartment, which is just outside the city, in a quiet neighborhood near the beach. The sea sings softly in the background, the beach dazzles outside, the surfers aren't too loud when they walk by, minus a few, and the summer weather is perfect – life is pretty decent, Kris thinks. But, for now, business first. He runs through his portfolio of stuff, checking the list again (or so he thinks – it's actually for the first time) - and finally notes the addition of the modeling agency, but it's just another name to check off for him. Tomorrow and the mess of accounts that's the city government of Los Angeles is far, far more important.

It's maybe a month later, when Kris finally gets to that modeling agency to pick up some extra files that he requested. That day, he should have gotten an inkling that the addition of Gold Models would be important, but he's running late - which is a rarity - after getting stuck in LA traffic - which, sadly, happens a little too often. He doesn't recognize the opportunity, or the situation...but if he did, oh...if he did.

The golden doors to the agency office have a large pad to push to open them from the outside (which, Kris notes to himself, is quite an efficient way of stopping the ridiculous trend of automatic doors opening for people who pass by in their range, and he ought to suggest that idea to his boss. The moment before Kris pushes the pad, though, the doors open by themselves, and a woman walks straight into him. He apologizes hurriedly, helping her up, and she waves it off, easily, watching as he rushes off to his meeting with the head of the finance department. Of the girl, he doesn't remember anything other than a slender figure with golden hair the color of sunlight, sunglasses that looked like they were stolen from Jessica Simpson, and a purse that hurt like hell.

When he meets Jay for lunch that weekend, he has the second heart attack of his life (and the year) not when Jay's half-sister slides into the seat beside him, nor when he realizes its the girl he collided into a few days ago. It's when she takes off those ridiculously large sunglasses and the face that smiles back at him is the same one from the Rembrandt billboard, and his exquisitely painful dreams.

"Minako Aino, or perhaps, better known as Mina Anteros stateside. And you are?" She says, with a crooked, serious smile that looks oddly becoming on her – but then again, if he remembers correctly, everything did.

He doesn't let her faze him, even though his heart suddenly feels like it's about to rocket out of his body and possibly straight into her hands, again. "Kristof Styrka – Kris, really. Pleased to meet you, Mina."

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done! R/R, please.


	2. and, the mastermind

Standard disclaimers apply.

This popped into my head while writing the previous chapter - it's kind of a companion piece, and gives a little more backstory until how it all happened. (Kris is a bit oblivious when he's got his head buried in work – did you really expect for him to search out Mina, rather than the other way around? :) )

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_and, the mastermind_

'The shoot could have been worse,' Minako mused. There were the fiascos of Mark tripping and falling into Adi and breaking her lens, and Lena getting hives from some of the makeup and just the general misfortune of it being a Friday the 13th - Thankfully, Adi was am amazingly patient photographer, a rarity these days, and most of the models at Gold's weren't of the catty, bitchy type. At least Arty and Luna had the sense to hire decent personalities when they decided to start their business and do something in the years that they waited for Crystal Tokyo.

'And, there the bad luck comes again,' Mina thought to herself, as she stepped through the doors of Gold's and crashed into a large, male body. A muffled whump from her purse indicated that she'd also hit him – in the back of his arm, she figured, from the way her arm was angled, before she managed to slip and fall to the floor. Mina examined him critically as he helped her up – neatly cut suit, probably not made specifically for him, but definitely tailored and of a good quality, which he filled out very, very well, a strong jaw and nose, white hair, intelligent eyes – probably an old corporate businessman come to deal with Arty.

She did another glance-over once she was standing; and then her cornflower blue eyes widened in surprise behind her Gucci sunglasses. The white hair was more platinum blonde, and the eyes, now that his face was in the light, were hazel-grey. He was a little too hot to be old, actually. And well, the truth was, Mina knew who he was - the face was familiar and beloved, and she had seen it a thousand times over, in old photo albums, and in another life. She watched as he rushed off hurriedly and talked to Erin at the front desk, who waved him in with a smile. 'Well, well, Kunzite's got business with us - I'll ask Luna about any of the business meetings that were scheduled for today' – or no, she frowned.

She slipped a hand into her purse, bringing out her phone to dial a familiar number. "Hey older brother," Mina murmured with an easy lilt to the half-brother she only met a few years ago, who she had almost crescent-beamed out of existence when he came to meet his mother for the first time. But that was before she dragged Ami into their house to scan him for negative energy subtly, and before she got to America and met the rest of his family – or, her family, in a way – who had an impressive collection of pictures documenting his life from birth to present, which finally cemented that he wasn't some bastard asshole General named Jadeite - well, even if he was a bastard, in both terms of the word. Except for the fact that he had a college friend who looked like a dead-ringer for Kunzite, who happened to be the guy who had just knocked her down, and that his cousin Zach, her cousin once removed, looked like a much more masculine version of Zoicite.

Of course,Mina had been about to kill him again two weeks ago when it turned out he actually was that person, as he came begging for her forgiveness for crimes committed in a past life – but they had both made their peace with former memories, (her more than him, though) now pieced together partially with snippets from both sides. He still knew far less than she did – although, then again, out of the inner senshi, Minako was the only one who fully remembered, after she forced it out from Setsuna and Luna, arguing rather forcefully with them until they finally gave in. She wondered to herself, amused, if Jay actually knew who Zach and Kris were. But at the moment, he seemed to only remember Endymion and Mars – and for some reason, her, but she figured it was because they lived together and he saw her on a daily basis.

"I fell into one of your friends today, I think."

"Not surprising, I know. I know. It was the white-haired one that you went to college with and seem to visit in New York pretty frequently? And he's generally down here whenever I'm back in Japan?"

"Yeah, yeah, we're both fine, I'm not calling to see the amount of money I can wring out of him by suing him for damages. Actually, it's that he's kind of attrac-"

"No, I promise I won't toy with him. Besides," she laughed, "it's usually them chasing your darling, fluttery sister."

"He's not my type? You mean, what, not the glitterati? Come on, Jay, you know me better than that."

"So, you can set up a lunch with us, then?"

"Love you too, jerk." Mina clicked her phone shut, and walked into the sunshine, humming with pleasure.

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Hope you liked it! Kind of stumped on summer and autumn for four seasons, but these two shorts were fun.


End file.
